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Lot Essay
Louis-Lopold Boilly was a fashionable Parisian painter whose career spanned over seventy years. His works include portraits, scnes galantes, still lifes, glimpses of Parisian life and contemporary historical subjects. He was also an accomplished lithographer working closely with Salvadore Tresca (1750?-1815) one of the main Parisian engravers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Born at La Basse near Lille in 1761, Boilly received his only documented training from the well-known trompe-l'oeil painter Dominique Doncre (1743-1820). He worked for a short period in Douai and Arras and then moved to Paris in 1785 where he exhibited at the Salon from 1791 to 1824.
In this eventful period in France's history, Boilly managed to produce some sensitive family scenes which represent the intimate interaction of his art, his happy family environment and his increasing success among collectors of the time.
Boilly's early works were common scenes of bourgeois galantrie, many of which were commissioned by M. Calvet Lapalun. The more risqu subjects which he showed at the Salon were denounced by the 'Socit Rpublicaine des Arts' in 1794 and on his acquittal, he painted The Triumph of Marat as a token of gratitude. His later work comprised mainly scenes of Parisian life and small-scale portraits. Among his most popular lithographs was a humorous series entitled Les Grimaces published in 1823. Boilly was made Chevalier of the Lgion d'Honneur in 1833 and died in Paris in 1845.
The present painting is a version rendered in grisaille of Boilly's Salon painting of 1791 entitled L'Evanouissement and currently in the collection of the Pushkin Museum, Moscow. Boilly was particularly fond of taking this technique and repeating a previously treated subject in grisaille in pure imitation of an engraving - in essence painting a print of a painting.
L'Evanouissement should be compared to other compositions painted la grisaille, most notably: Jeune femme assise sur l'appui d'une croise (National Gallery, London) or the equally famous Les galeries du Palais Royal (Muse Carnavalet, Paris). The present locations of the polychrome versions of these paintings are currently unknown.
It is important to remember that Boilly's taste for trompe l'oeil was developed early on with his teacher Dominique Doncre and was a technique that he turned to again and again. Boilly is one of the first artists to be captivated by the image-making potential of chambres noirs or camera obscura as well as by camera lucida and other optical tools. It is undoubtedly by using one of these camera lucida that Boilly would make these monochromatic versions of his oil paintings. Unfortunately, no texts have remained regarding the painter's work with these optical devices.
In a certain number of his grisaille paintings, Boilly pushes the illusion to a quasi-photographic degree; in fact, the paper margins, titles, texts, and other inscriptions such as one would find on an engraving are scrupulously reproduced. Thus the viewer is deceived, and the illusion is complete.
Engraved by Tresca with the title L'Evanouissement, the present painting is to be compared to two other grisailles mentioned by Harrisse (op. cit., 97 and 603); the three grisailles were in fact sold in 1813 and 1815 in the Tresca-Faucher sales, sold under the same number. It is not surprising that Tresca, engraver and close friend of Boilly, was the owner of several of these paintings imitating prints. Once again, Boilly proved his perfect mastery of the technique of oil painting early on in his career, as much by his grisailles as by his polychrome works.
The present painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue rainonn of Boilly's paintings by Etienne Breton and Pascal Zuber.
Born at La Basse near Lille in 1761, Boilly received his only documented training from the well-known trompe-l'oeil painter Dominique Doncre (1743-1820). He worked for a short period in Douai and Arras and then moved to Paris in 1785 where he exhibited at the Salon from 1791 to 1824.
In this eventful period in France's history, Boilly managed to produce some sensitive family scenes which represent the intimate interaction of his art, his happy family environment and his increasing success among collectors of the time.
Boilly's early works were common scenes of bourgeois galantrie, many of which were commissioned by M. Calvet Lapalun. The more risqu subjects which he showed at the Salon were denounced by the 'Socit Rpublicaine des Arts' in 1794 and on his acquittal, he painted The Triumph of Marat as a token of gratitude. His later work comprised mainly scenes of Parisian life and small-scale portraits. Among his most popular lithographs was a humorous series entitled Les Grimaces published in 1823. Boilly was made Chevalier of the Lgion d'Honneur in 1833 and died in Paris in 1845.
The present painting is a version rendered in grisaille of Boilly's Salon painting of 1791 entitled L'Evanouissement and currently in the collection of the Pushkin Museum, Moscow. Boilly was particularly fond of taking this technique and repeating a previously treated subject in grisaille in pure imitation of an engraving - in essence painting a print of a painting.
L'Evanouissement should be compared to other compositions painted la grisaille, most notably: Jeune femme assise sur l'appui d'une croise (National Gallery, London) or the equally famous Les galeries du Palais Royal (Muse Carnavalet, Paris). The present locations of the polychrome versions of these paintings are currently unknown.
It is important to remember that Boilly's taste for trompe l'oeil was developed early on with his teacher Dominique Doncre and was a technique that he turned to again and again. Boilly is one of the first artists to be captivated by the image-making potential of chambres noirs or camera obscura as well as by camera lucida and other optical tools. It is undoubtedly by using one of these camera lucida that Boilly would make these monochromatic versions of his oil paintings. Unfortunately, no texts have remained regarding the painter's work with these optical devices.
In a certain number of his grisaille paintings, Boilly pushes the illusion to a quasi-photographic degree; in fact, the paper margins, titles, texts, and other inscriptions such as one would find on an engraving are scrupulously reproduced. Thus the viewer is deceived, and the illusion is complete.
Engraved by Tresca with the title L'Evanouissement, the present painting is to be compared to two other grisailles mentioned by Harrisse (op. cit., 97 and 603); the three grisailles were in fact sold in 1813 and 1815 in the Tresca-Faucher sales, sold under the same number. It is not surprising that Tresca, engraver and close friend of Boilly, was the owner of several of these paintings imitating prints. Once again, Boilly proved his perfect mastery of the technique of oil painting early on in his career, as much by his grisailles as by his polychrome works.
The present painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue rainonn of Boilly's paintings by Etienne Breton and Pascal Zuber.